Abstract

A community participatory approach to identify common evaluation indicators for community health worker practice

Keara Rodela, MPH¹, Kenneth Maes, PhD², Noelle Wiggins, EdD, MSC³, Edith Kieffer, MPH, PhD⁴ and Teresa Campos-Dominguez, CHW⁵
(1)Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization, Portland, OR, (2)Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, (3)Community Health Workers Common Indicators Project, Portland, OR, (4)University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, (5)Multnomah County Health Department, Portland, OR

APHA's 2020 VIRTUAL Annual Meeting and Expo (Oct. 24 - 28)

This presentation provides an overview of the CHW Common Indicators (CI) Project. In 2015, a group of CHWs, researcher/evaluators, CHW supervisors and employers, and health system staff founded the CI Project to try to solve the following problems. While there is a large body of evidence supporting the positive outcomes of CHW programs, different programs are evaluated in different ways, making it impossible to combine data across programs and regions. A lack of easy-to-use indicators makes it hard for grassroots CHW programs to demonstrate their value to funders. Not paying attention to how CHWs achieve outcomes can lead to the CHW scope of practice being narrowed to just a few roles. A lack of meaningful involvement of CHWs in the evaluation of their programs can mean evaluations miss crucial information and don’t support CHW self-determination.

The long-term goals of the CI Project are to identify a larger set of evaluation concepts and a smaller set of evaluation indicators that can be used across CHW programs, regionally and nationally. The CI Project has conducted interviews, focus groups, surveys, summits and regular conference calls with CHWs and other stakeholders from a growing number of states. The CI Project uses popular (people’s) education philosophy and methods to balance power and prioritize the knowledge, input, and leadership of CHWs. In 2021, with funding from the CDC, the CI Project will support several organizations to begin piloting 10 recommended indicators. The CI Project is guided by an advisory board that welcomes new members.

Advocacy for health and health education Chronic disease management and prevention Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice Program planning Provision of health care to the public Systems thinking models (conceptual and theoretical models), applications related to public health